Tonik Energy

BarneyL

I used Tonik and moved to another supplier two years ago. They spent a year after that sending me automated e-mails requesting a time to come and fit a smart meter. A year ago they cancelled my direct debit with them.
Yesterday with no warning I received a letter from a debt collection agency for "unpaid" debts to Tonik.

krish

BarneyL said:

I used Tonik and moved to another supplier two years ago. They spent a year after that sending me automated e-mails requesting a time to come and fit a smart meter. A year ago they cancelled my direct debit with them.
Yesterday with no warning I received a letter from a debt collection agency for "unpaid" debts to Tonik.

I presume you still cancelled your DD with them at your end 2 years ago though, after switching, rather than wait for them to cancel (a year later)?

inspectorperez

BarneyL said:

I used Tonik and moved to another supplier two years ago. They spent a year after that sending me automated e-mails requesting a time to come and fit a smart meter. A year ago they cancelled my direct debit with them.
Yesterday with no warning I received a letter from a debt collection agency for "unpaid" debts to Tonik.

Based on a whole host of things including accounts filed late every year, insolvent status, admitted problems with computer platform migration, anecdote after anecdote on here and Trustpilot about failure to repay customer refunds, I speculate that their accounting system has fallen over and the employment of debt collectors is the scattergun approach in an attempt to tidy up a very inaccurate customer ledger!

TamasinG

TamasinG said:

I've just done a dual fuel switch to Tonik and it's been nothing but trouble. I'm at my wits end. I previously had separate gas and electric suppliers. Both were great to deal with, but the electric deal was expiring, and although the gas deal still had a year to run (so I knew I would pay an exit fee to switch out), the savings that MSE energy club said I would achieve made it worth it. So I went ahead. Tonik have done the electricity transfer okay, but haven't even contacted my existing gas supplier yet. I started the switch at the beginning of April and we are now in May. I have rung to tell them my current gas supplier hasn't even heard from them several times, each time spending an hour whilst I got passed from pillar to post and then told I was right and they (Tonik) would have to meet the tariff difference until the switch is completed, but this was only said orally and not confirmed in writing. They said the application is stuck within their system and cannot be cancelled and restarted, and they don't know if or when it will complete. They have however sent me a welcome letter saying they have now taken over my energy supply, and have taken an £80 direct debit, even though they are only supplying my electric. When I phoned, they told me they were cancelling the £80 DD and resetting it up to commence in May at £40, but told me in a confirmation email which I requested whilst I was on the phone to check with my bank to ensure they did not pay it. They subsequently took £80 on 27th April, so I cancelled the DD on the advice of my bank after reading Tonik's email to them. Because Tonik are not legally my gas supplier yet, I'm still paying £69 a month to my old supplier as well. I have penned several emails to Tonik asking for the matter to be resolved . Not a single one has been answered. My old supplier emails me back within an hour when I ask them for updates. Tonik have not even responsed to the email I penned when their billing department emailed me because I cancelled the direct debit (as I couldn't afford to pay two suppliers for the same gas supply) and they threatened to drop me to a more expensive and penal tariff. Now, when I ring them to try and get things worked out, I spend at least half an hour waiting but no one answers, so I give up. They are hiding behind the Coronavirus situation to justify not answering calls or emails. I'm at my wits end, wishing I'd never touched them with a barge pole, and wishing I could go elsewhere. But I'm in limbo, and if I try and leave Tonik, although there have been a catalogue of errors and they're clearly in breach of contract, they will no doubt try and invoke exit fees. As they wont answer phone calls or emails, I'm at a loss as to where I go from here. Tonik are despicable!

Tonik did get in now touch with me after this. They sent a threatening email in relation to me cancelling my direct debit. At the time I was responding to their email, I had a phone call from someone at Tonik who said I shouldn’t have received the letter, and was extremely apologetic. She said she was going to take ownership of my issues, sort the problems out and get my gas switch completed, starting the next day. We spoke for about an hour. I asked her to email me a summary of the phone call, setting out what she said she would do - and she did this. She said she would continue to update me on progress as it was made and told me that whilst she couldn’t give me a direct dial phone number, all I had to do to get her attention was respond to her email, saying whether I wanted a call back or an email update. She set she’d set up an alert so as soon as I emailed her, it would create a task to contact me. Sounded great. But three weeks later, I’ve heard absolutely nothing. I’ve responded to her email twice, asking her to ring me. I’ve had no contact whatsoever. Tonik was, and remains, an absolute disgrace, plumbing the very depths of what is actually possible in terms of dreadful customer service! I’m sick of them and want away. They somehow continued to be recommended by moneysavingexpert the last time I looked. My advice would be to avoid them at all costs.